Part of ministry to children is teaching them to serve Christ by serving others. Involving kids in a missions project is a wonderful opportunity to help meet this goal. These projects typically involve raising money, and children are often a bit unsure of how to handle this challenge.  Beyond asking their parents for money or dipping into their small savings, how can they raise money? Below are some ideas for how you can help children earn money for missions.  Hopefully these ideas will help you as you prepare to involve your children in the Helping Hands for Kids 2017 project- “Do Your Part: Helping Venezuela’s Pastors’ Kids.”

• Generate excitement about the missions project! Use the materials provided at children.cogop.org to help children truly understand the need and how they can make a difference.  There are ideas for teaching children about the culture of Venezuela, the needs of the people, prayer ideas, and much more.  Don’t miss out on the opportunity to teach your children to have the hearts of servants.

• Guide the children in preparing a presentation for their parents and grandparents, similar to a project they might do for school. Provide the children with poster board, art supplies, and pictures related to the project for which they they want to raise money.  Once they have prepared a visual board, help them practice using their board to share with adults about the project.  When children invest their time and effort into explaining the missions need, adults are more likely to give.

• Ask an adult who is gifted in the area of media production to help children create a video to share in church and on social media. For example, the children at my church were raising money for Christians in Nepal to purchase chickens and goats.  Each child shared just one or two sentences about the need.  We filmed in different outdoor settings, and we even found someone with pet goats who let us film part of the video at their house.  Once it was edited, this was a wonderful tool for sharing about the mission project.

• Be creative in helping children discover ways to raise money. One of the children at my church lives near a bookstore that purchases used books.  This child gathered up books she had finished reading, sold them, and gave the money to missions.  Another child held a traditional bake sale after church to raise money.  If yard sales or garage sales are popular in your area, this would also be a great project for the children to do together.

I love watching the excitement of children when they realize that they are truly making a difference in the world.  Beyond just making a difference, however, it is my prayer that they will know and understand the words of Jesus….”Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”  (Matthew 25:40, NIV)

Click for more information about the 2017 Helping Hands for Kids Project.